1. Field of the Present Invention
The present invention relates to the field of data processing networks and more particularly to the processing of frames received by a server on the network.
2. History of Related Art
In the field of data processing networks, the client-server model is well known. In a client-server model, the client may comprise an application such as a conventional web browser running on any manner of computing device connected to a network such as the Internet. The client device may be a desktop or laptop personal computer, a network computer, an Internet enabled phone or personal digital assistant (PDA), and so forth. The server may comprise an application such as a web server application running on a second computing device (or set of computing devices) such as a server appliance that is also connected to the network. In a typical client server transaction or session, the client initiates a request for information that is delivered to the server over the network. As is well known, the request may travel over the network as one or more frames of information formatted according to a network protocol supported by both the client and server. Typically, the formatting of frames according to a network protocol includes appending one or more frame headers onto the data (or a portion thereof) representing the request at the client end. The number of frame headers appended onto a request may vary dependent upon the particular network protocol in use. The Open System Interconnection (OSI) Model defines seven layers that describe how applications running on network-aware devices communicate with each other. A network frame may include a header corresponding to each of these layers (except perhaps the physical layer). When a frame arrives at its destination, the server device processes the header information prior to delivering the application data to the server application.
Among the most prevalent type of client-server communication is a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) formatted request delivered to a server over a Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) compliant network. The TCP/IP suite of protocols is the basic communication language of many networks including the Internet. For more information regarding TCP/IP, the reader is directed to M. Murhammer et al., TCP/IP Tutorial and Technical Overview, available online at www.redbooks.ibm.com (#GG24-3376-05) and incorporated by reference herein. When an HTTP request is received at the server end, the lower level headers including the IP header and the TCP header are processed to verify, among other things, that the frame has arrived at the correct destination and has not been corrupted during transmission over the network. When the lower level headers have been processed, the HTTP request is passed to a web server to process the actual request. Thus, the delivery of the request to the server application is typically delayed until the network headers are processed. It would be desirable to implement a method and system that reduced or eliminated this delay in an effort to improve network performance.